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I utterly *despise* the greed in some people!

I

iphonepiephone

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 9, 2009
213
0
Okay, so yesterday I was donated these two PCs, in order to sell them on and make some cash, by very kind neighbours:

AcerPower F6: http://icecat.biz/p/acer/pspf6c6u01/acerpower-f6-pcs-acerpower-f6-553166.html

AcerPower FH: http://icecat.biz/EN/p/acer/pspfhc6u02/power-pcs-4718235908225-acerpower-fh-885703.html

Neither has RAM, but 1Gb DDR2 per PC is £9.99 - nothing at all, which I plan to buy. So, I call a local PC shop which my "friend" runs, and I ask him to get me a price - a price that they can buy them in for, per PC, and he agrees to text me back and let me know.

Bearing in mind these machines are fully working, except for ram pulls, and one was made 2006, and the other 2007, one is 3.06Ghz Celeron D 346, and the other 3.46Ghz Celeron D 360 - okay, not gonna be the "Kray" super computer anytime soon, but very decent and solid PCs.

So, anyhow, the text comes through... "She'll give you £20... for both".

Is it just me, or is that someone taKing sheer liberties? They told me last week, in a rather boastful manner "Oh, we buy fully working laptops for £40 each - people come in and are desparate, but the pawn brokers took the p*ss, so we help out"

WTH?

"Help"? who, exactly? These machines are still in stock at some warehouses, and sell for ~ £253!

Just wanted to vent, as I feel pretty insulted. Obviously I kept the machines, but for GOODNESS sake, some people just have no shame!
 
iphonepiephone said:
Not in the UK my friend, but anyhoo, I think that unless I get £130 ~ for them, I'm gonna keep ems :)

Didn't the £££ give me away? :p
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm a bit out of it....wow....sorry lol.

Well, if I may simply quote Mr. Carlin...

'Cause there's no morality in business. Just a ledger. Keep it in the black. Show a profit-Keep it in the black-keep it in the black. Never mind your soul. Never mind the landscape. Never mind the other guy. Keep it in the black-keep it in the black-do what you can-keep it in the black. BUSINESS AS USUAL GOING ON! Big plywood up there. BUSINESS AS USUAL!
Click to expand...
 
seems like that is all they were worth to them ... one could say holding out for too much money is the greed
 
Apple OC said:
seems like that is all they were worth to them ... one could say holding out for too much money is the greed
Click to expand...

Oh, right, that's it - I forgot - makes me the greedy one by NOT getting ripped off. Well done, top notch logic.

£100 for your MBP? Come on, it's cash too! ;)
 
Apple OC said:
you paid zero ... sell them for any price = profit

good luck holding out for the price you want
Click to expand...

I think your viewpoint is a little bizarre - I'm well aware what profit is, just not too keen on having the p*ss taken - kinda understandable? :rolleyes:

missing_point.JPG


If someone gave you the Mona Lisa, would you sell it to me for £100K? Come onnn, they GAVE you it! Don't be greedy! ;):D
 
iphonepiephone said:
I think your viewpoint is a little bizarre - I'm well aware what profit is, just not too keen on having the p*ss taken - kinda understandable? :rolleyes:

Image

If someone gave you the Mona Lisa, would you sell it to me for £100K? Come onnn, they GAVE you it! Don't be greedy! ;):D
Click to expand...

nope ... Greed would make me hold out for the maximum :D
 
The computer does not worth anything, or much. It's a hell of a door stopper. What he offered you, is fair. As he's going to want to double his profit. The good news, you don't have to deal with selling it.
 
iphonepiephone said:
@StvenH90 - ComputerS

You guys are crazy. Never mind, thankfully I'm not.
Click to expand...

I have taken similar computers in for my business. I rarely sold them for anything worth wile within a week. I was better off donating them (tax write off), then letting then take up space.

You have to ask your self (with old electronics), what's the value of my time and space?
 
So, just to clarify, what price would you have considered fair? If a 5 year old computer sells for ~£250 retail, and they're used to boot. Your shop-running friend probably knows this, so she probably won't sell them for anything near the new-in-box price. And she has no motive to take them off your hands unless she can resell them at a profit to herself - that's called business. If she took a loss on every transaction she made, you wouldn't have a friend at a shop to go to, because she wouldn't have a shop.

Computers, PCs in particular, depreciate fairly fast, since there's always something shinier and faster right around the corner. you also have to consider that not many people are going to want to buy something so antiquated, since for just a bit more money, they can get a new, modern computer.

You probably got a fair price on the offer. If you don't like it, stick some RAM in them and sell them yourself and don't leave money on the table like you planned to by selling it to a middleman. You cry a lot about your friend being greedy; maybe a look in the mirror would do you some good.
 
Doesn't surprise me, my university's computer recycling project gives machines away of that spec.

Get them directly to people who need them instead.
 
If one really thinks about it, that offer, while a little bit low, is quite understandable. If these machines sell for £ 250 retail, she could maybe sell them for half of that since they are used. So £ 125 that is. Then comes tax and takes almost half of that away, so she has about £ 70 left. Then she has to pay the rent for the shop, her employees, etc. so she maybe has about £ 30 left. She gives you £ 10 sounds ok, maybe it could be £ 15 but that's about it.

If you want to circumvent this and get the full £ 125 you have to do the selling and use ebay.
 
Um, similar but slightly different situation.

I was given an old desktop pc that was running slow, the owner had just bought a new one and was about to throw the old one away so I said that I'd have it and take a look, see if I could get running smooth again.

Happily it had an original factory install disk for xp and a copy of office 2003 with it.
I had a spare 256mb ram that fitted o.k so I took it to it's maximum grand total of 512mb ram :) and did a fresh install.

A little brush and clean up to get the fan working efficiently and job done.

The couple next door were down on their luck so I gave it to them and they used it complete a government sponsored computer course, both passed their exam and are still using and learning on the same computer.

Maybe you're skint and need to get the cash in but if you're not, and the shop is only offering what you consider to be a low amount, why not fix up the ram and sell them on for the price of the ram?
We all know someone who's struggling and it might give them the break they need.
It's a harsh world, use some of your knowledge and skill with computers to give someone a helping hand.
 
These desktops weren't worth much when they were new. What makes you believe that they're worth more than £20 after 4-5 years???

Secondly, businesses who purchase used products still need to sell them and make a profit, so just because you can get around £30 each for these computers from private sales does NOT mean you'd get the same from a shop. You won't.

Thirdly, if you can't sell on Craigslist in the UK, and can't find other means to sell the computers, then who is doing who a favour in this situation?? :confused: He's giving you money for something that he'll still need to sell. If it takes him weeks to sell, it wouldn't even be worth his storage space to stock these crappy computers for weeks, just to sell for £40 a month later.
 
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